“For a free trade agreement to be possible after Brexit, the interim period must involve no membership of the EEA, the customs union or EFTA, because that would remove the freedom we need to negotiate with third countries.

That includes any period in the EEA, being party to the EEA agreement, like EFTA states, or a bilateral Swiss-style agreement. The EEA essentially means membership of the single market and commitment to the four freedoms—free movement of goods, services, capital and workers.

Three EFTA states—Norway, Iceland and Liechtenstein—signed the EEA agreement in 1994, but the EEA agreement would mean insufficient freedom for us to be a credible partner in trade negotiations with others.”

As readers of this blog will know, this is very similar to what Legatum have been saying – they believe that for us to become a successful ‘Global Britain’ after Brexit we need to be outside the EU’s Custom’s Union, Common External Tariff or Common commercial policy.

On those points, we agree.

Where we disagree with them is that we don’t believe that the UK should shun the EEA (European Economic Area) or European Free Trade Association (EFTA).

Legatum seems to think that by jettisoning all regulatory ties to the EU and EFTA we can ‘put everything on the table’ during trade talks to sign some super-duper trade deal with say – the USA. This approach is effectively putting all our eggs in one basket and hoping for the best.